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Doing The Work And Paying Attention With Danny Iny [HERO]

In Today’s Episode You’ll Learn:

There is something very soothing about Danny. His point of view is always thoroughly thought through and well put, there is also a great explanation behind his actions, and even though you will never catch him raise his voice, there is a lot of passion behind everything he does.

I wanted Danny on the show because his message is highly valuable: No matter how many hacks and tricks you have, it doesn’t replace doing the work.

I love it.

In our day and age we sometimes get caught up searching for the best tool or method to make our job easier, and sometimes we confuse “easier” with “none”. There is no such thing as success with no effort, the fact that we sometimes get to see only the end result doesn’t mean there weren’t many days and nights of hard work, hardships and sweat.

That being said, Danny’s super power is paying attention; To everything. Think about it – how many things do you do every day without paying attention? How many times did you take the same road back home, and couldn’t remember a second of it by the time you reached your destination?

Well, you can’t improve something you are not paying attention to. The whole point of creating something meaningful in our lives is to notice; Everything we do is an experiment – how will you know what to repeat if you’re not paying attention to the results? How will you know what’s working?

Danny’s mission is to help entrepreneurs create success through meaningful and intended lifestyle. Creating real relationships, providing real value, noticing a need or a desire – this is an art that only someone Danny could grasp and break into simple single-step lessons.

I’m proud to have him as a guest on the show and I know that his words of wisdom will change your perspective.

Today’s Superhero

Audience engagement expert Danny Iny has been an entrepreneur for longer than his entire adult life. He quit school when he was fifteen to start his first business, and has been doing it ever since.

Along the way he ran the Montreal Marathon, got an MBA, and married the most wonderful woman in the world. He’s also worked with companies of all sizes, from the very huge (Nokia, Google) to small businesses and entrepreneurs who are just getting started.

These days, he is a prolific blogger and marketing educator at Firepole Marketing. He’s excited to be the co-author with Guy Kawasaki, Brian Clark, Mitch Joel, and a lot of other people you’d probably recognize of a book called Engagement from Scratch! How super-community builders create a loyal audience, and how you can do the same!

Most recently, Danny released the free Naked Marketing Manifesto, and is currently working on turning it into a full-fledged book. Danny is a super-friendly guy who makes a point of responding to emails and messages within 24 hours. Follow him on Twitter @DannyIny or email him at danny@firepolemarketing.com.

Hero Q&A

1. Do you have a sidekick?

Danny has an entire team that runs Firepole Marketing. The thing with delegating, as Danny put it, is about what you’re trying to build. If you’re after a quick revenue then you better do it on your own and save the time and effort of training someone, but if you’re after building something that’s bigger than yourself – then you need a team.

2. What’s your super power when it comes to getting things done?

Danny’s super power has always been being observant. He believes that everything we do, both in business and in life, is a bunch of experiments – we try some things, some work better than others, and when you are observant enough you get to understand which experiments are worth repeating and which aren’t.
He has been experimenting the same way with his time management. Recently, Danny has changed the way he manages his schedule. A question he got randomly asked in a conference he attended got him to realize that his optimal working time slot is before lunch, so he has made the necessary changes to make sure that this slot is filled properly, leaving him the rest of the day for meetings, interview and human interaction.

3. What is your kryptonite, when it comes to time management?

Getting into rabbit holes. Sometimes, even Danny finds it hard to avoid the activities that he knows he won’t be able to NOT get sucked into – like email. Eventually, it all comes down to being more disciplined, and it’s a struggle for most people.

4. Name your top secret weapons for gaining time:

Productive Inbox: It’s a Gmail plugin created by Firepole Marketing, and it helps organize your to-do list according to the changing tasks and depends you have.

Boomerang: A Gmail extension that allows to send a message later.

Rapportive: A gmail extension that provides you with the social profiles’ information of the person you are reading the email from, or writing an email to.

My Aqua Notes: Waterproof pen and pencil that allow you to write down the amazing ideas you get in the shower.

5. What is your biggest secret, the one that helps you get more time?

Going back to the topic of paying attention, Danny shared a handy little technique: Being the observer that he is, he pays attention to himself, and he knows himself fairly well. He knows, for example, that he has a bit of OCD, and that he needs his desk to be neat and organized. Now, how can he use this quality to save time or to be more effective?
Easy-peasy! Danny makes sure he writes his tasks on sticky notes and puts on his desk – his urge will always be to clear out his desk, so eventually he will have to finish the tasks that are written on the sticky note. BOOM!

6. If a genie gave you one extra hour every day for the rest of your life, what would you do with it?

Danny believes that much like with Parkinson’s law – no matter how many extra hours you get, you’d still do the same things, and he feels that he is fortunate enough to already be doing what he loves, so he would not change a thing for this extra genie-given hour, but rather do extra of the same things.